Podcast host Amy Chavez talks with Michael Pronko, a Tokyo-based writer of murder, memoir, and music and professor of American Literature at Meiji Gakuen University. During his 20 years plus in the country, he has written for Newsweek Japan, The Japan Times and Artscape Japan, and has been featured on NHK TV and Nippon television. He also runs the website Jazz in Japan, which covers the vibrant jazz scene in Tokyo and Yokohama. Today, we’re going to talk about Pronko’s fiction, as well as his nonfiction books, including his most recently released Tokyo Tempos.
Paul Martin is a Japanese sword expert who has worked at the British Museum and traveled extensively in Japan to study swords and armor. Martin’s new book Japanese Swords and Armor covers 30 famous samurai warriors and their swords, armor, and other artifacts associated with them, each with its own historical and cultural significance. The book was originally published in both Italian and French, and is now available in English from by Tuttle Publishing (Oct. 2024).
Martin discusses the history and significance of Emperor Gotoba, who was exiled to the Oki Islands but continued making swords there. The swords he crafted were marked with a chrysanthemum, which became the basis for the current Imperial seal.
In this podcast episode, Paul Martin highlights some of the most notable pieces in his book, including a wooden sword made by Miyamoto Musashi and sword fittings attributed to him. Martin also provides recommendations on the best places in Japan to see historical Japanese swords.
Emperor Gotoba was known for his poetry, much of it written while in exile on Oki Island. One particular poem involves the poet banishing the frogs from a nearby pond:
“Frogs, croaking in the pond
Go away, banish your noise;
In this world of sorrow,
There’s no need for your song.” (translation generated from ChatGPT)
Gotoba was very sensitive to noises, and the frogs’ croaking disturbed his sleep. Apparently, the frogs have been silent ever since.
Martin also talks about the beginning lines of the Tale of the Heike, an epic that recounts the history of the late Heian period, including the life and exile of Gotoba:
“The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that to flourish is to fall. The proud do not endure, like a passing dream on a night in spring; the mighty fall at last, to be no more than dust before the wind.” -_Helen Craig McCullough
Lastly, Paul Martin’s favorite books are:
1. They Came to Japan by Michael Cooper, a collection of Jesuit records from the 17th century.
2. The Tale of the Heike, (version translated by Helen Craig McCullough) a classic Japanese epic poem that reflects the concept of impermanence.
3. The documentary “The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On” by Kazuo Hara, which explores the ambiguities of Japanese culture and the horrors of war.
Burritt Sabin is a Yokohama-based author. He was born in New York City and came to Japan as a naval officer in 1975. His professional career in Japan started as a journalist, and he quickly moved into writing and historical research. The first book we’re going to talk about today is about Yokohama, a city known for being one of the first Japanese ports to open to foreign trade in the 1850s. A Historical Guide to Yokohama: Sketches of the Twice-Risen Phoenix is a window into a time when Japan was rapidly opening up to the world.
The other book we’ll talk about is Kamakura: A Contemplative Guidewhich highlights the first samurai capital in the 12th century. Shogun Minamoto no Yoritomo chose this city for the seat of his military government, which ushered in the Kamakura Period in 1185.
Subjects covered in the podcast:
1. Townsend Harris and the opening of Japan (Yokohama)
2. The Hotel New Grand in Yokohama
3. The Great Buddha of Kamakura
4. Natsume Soseki’s and Suzuki Daisetz’s sojourn at Kigen-in, Kamakura
5. The Kamakura bunshi
Lastly, Sabin discusses his three favorite books on Japan.
“Here are three books that gave me pleasure and helped me write my own:”
1. The Death of Old Yokohama in the Earthquake of 1923 by Otis Manchester Poole
A gripping account in real time of a man navigating the post-quake hellscape in an attempt to reach his family.
2. Aru Shisei no To: Koshikata wa kanashiku mono kiroku (A Waif of the Streets: Record of a Sad Passage) by Hasegawa Shin
Hasegawa Shin recounts growing up in poverty in late-19th century Yokohama, teaching himself to read and write, and becoming a leading popular playwright.
3. Sugao Kamakura (The True Face of Kamakura) ed. by Osaragi Jiro
An insightful collection of essays on Kamakura by writers who have made the city their home.
Autumn in Japan is traditionally a time for reading, with cooler evenings and sumptuous seasonal foods apt to put one in the mood for enjoying a good book.
Mystery writer and Agatha Award nominee, Tina deBellegarde, has a seasonal offering that is both timely and ripe for the reading.
Hot on the heels of her first two Batavia-on-Hudson Mystery books comes Autumn Embers, a fresh tale of intrigue driven once more by the savvy, small-town sleuth, Bianca St. Denis. This time, leaving behind a cast of quirky local characters, she departs New York State for Japan’s former capital, Kyoto, to return a priceless artefact and visit her musician son, Ian, who has taken up residency in one of the atmospheric old neighbourhoods.
But whilst we experience the city’s timeless charm through her ‘fresh eyes’ (and faux pas), it becomes quickly apparent that all is not well in the ancient capital.
Tension is ratcheted up when St. Denis’ joy at seeing her son turns to dread after she witnesses a violent struggle in the garden of his guesthouse late one night. When the police find no evidence of foul play, she grows unsettled, convinced that something sinister has come to pass, but helpless in a city where she doesn’t speak the language and is still grappling with its idiosyncratic customs. Her worst fears are confirmed when a body appears in the local river — to be followed by the shocking revelation that her son, Ian, is the number one suspect in the police investigation. Her maternal instincts kick in and she resolves to hunt down the perpetrator.
Like all rollicking mysteries, Autumn Embers deals in the physical as well as the psychological. Between moments of tension, deBellegarde eases us through the quaint shopping streets of downtown Kyoto, sampling its treats, sifting for books and records in its hundred-year-old stores, or just stepping out of a passing rain shower and into a cozy cafe to savour jazz music over a stormy brew.
Scenes like these imbue the story with a strong sense of place and cleverly temper the moments of chaos. Aside from themes of ‘familial love’, ‘friendship’ and ‘revenge’, we come to understand what it means to be a foreigner living in Japan, and that no matter how sincere and earnest one’s endeavours are to fit in and understand the culture, one is forever doomed to remain a gaijin — an outsider.
Autumn Embers moves at a fair clip thanks to the use of short chapters which to-and-fro the narrative between Japan and the U.S. where a parallel story of trial and tribulation is played out by St. Denis’ friend and cohort, Batavia-on-Hudson sheriff Mike Riley. The twain, thankfully, do converge by the end of the book, bringing this story to a satisfying conclusion while also leaving us wondering if there may be more to their relationship than meets the eye.
deBellegarde’s next book, number four, is sure to reveal all.
Our guest today is author Lesley Downer an expert on Japanese culture and history. She writes both fiction and non-fiction. Her novels transport readers to the intriguing world of 19th-century Japan, while her non-fiction takes us along on the Narrow Road to the Deep North with poet Matsuo Basho; behind the scenes of the Geisha community; and into the intrigues of the richest family in Japan. Oh, and she also writes fiction! Today, she discusses her just-released The Shortest History of Japan: From Mythical Origins to Pop Culture Powerhouse, which provides a concise yet detailed account of Japanese history.
Show Notes:
Downer highlights the significance of historical figures like Himiko, the shaman queen who unified Yamatai, and Empresses Suiko and Koken, who ruled Japan in their own right. She also touches on the feminist movement in Japan, particularly the contributions of Hiratsuka Raicho and Akiko Yosano. Lastly, she shares insights into her writing career, including her transition from nonfiction to fiction and her research on geisha.
Lesley mentions Yosano Akiko’s poem “Until Death Do Us Part” (“Shini tanoma”) which Akiko wrote before her brother went off to war:
Until Death Do Us Part
by Yosano Akiko
Though my body dies,
My soul will remain with you.
Until the end of time,
Let us pledge to be together,
Until death do us part.
(translation: ChatGPT 4o)
Downer’s three favorite books on Japan:
1. Japan Journal, 1855-1861 by Henry Heusken, which covers the author’s experiences during his time as the secretary and interpreter for Townsend Harris, the first U.S. Consul General to Japan.
3. Taiko by Yoshikawa Eiji, a historical novel that tells the story of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of Japan’s greatest warlords and unifiers during the Sengoku period.
You can visit Lesley Downer at the following links:
Mayumi Inaba (稲葉 真弓, 1950-2014) was a Japanese writer and poet whom I confess I had never heard of. I am glad I didn’t let that stop me reading Mornings with My Cat Mii. Published in Japanese in 1999 and now translated into English by Ginny Tapley Takemori, it had me gripped.
Inaba finds Mii as an abandoned new-born. She and her husband adopt the kitten, give her a name (onomatopoeic) and watch as Mii grows and explores their garden and its plants, their smells and colours and the neighbourhood noises. Inaba does not seem to be an experienced cat-owner at this point: Mii is impregnated by a stray tom and nearly dies because she is still only a half-grown kitten, too small to give birth. However, she survives and thrives:
“Mii was by now settled in the house and familiar with the woods. She enjoyed playing with the stray cats and came in and out as she pleased. Just hearing the wails of the cats in the grounds of the shrine or the sound of them crawling through the hole in the lean-to by the bathroom and running about the house was enough to bring a smile to my lips. The physiology and instincts of these lively, young and supple, utterly uninhibited creatures enriched my nights. Mii was as cowardly as ever among the Kokubunji cats that did as they pleased, but still she went outside. And she would quietly leave the house as though gauging that it was time for me to work.”
Inaba separates from her husband and, after some considerable difficulty, she and Mii move into a flat. (Who knew that most city flats and houses in Japan refuse to accept pets?) Mii gets used to high-rise apartment living though she has no sense of which flat is hers, and in one distressing episode gets lost and ends up at a neighbour’s for the night – a neighbour who then becomes a close friend to Inaba.
Through difficult times (Inaba also gets sacked from her job), a constant in her life is Mii. Inaba says many other things about her relationship with Mii, and it seems invidious to select one short quote, but I was particularly struck by this description:
“Since my husband had left, Mii and I had become closer than ever. Our intimacy was spun without words and in time formed into an unbreakable bond. We slept in the same bed, entrusting our bodies to each other, snuggling together, and in the morning the first thing we saw was each other.”
And (this from the wordsmith and a poet):
“Maybe the fact that we couldn’t communicate in words cushioned us and kept things calm between us. ”
Inevitably, years of decline follow as Mii ages, suffers various ailments, and eventually dies. Much of this part of the book is taken up with getting food into her and getting the waste products out by massaging Mii’s belly, all described in unsparing detail. Inaba cares for her so devotedly that after the vet has more or less given up, Inaba succeeds in keeping her alive and content to the great age of more than twenty.
Mornings With My Cat Mii is engrossing because it is also about Inaba’s own life, her friendships, the failure of her marriage and subsequent loneliness, her dedication to becoming a writer and her feelings about the physical environment she and Mii share. I reflected, as I read, on the different ways people write about their relationships with animals and reveal themselves as they do so. Gavin Maxwell and his relationship with the otters in Ring of Bright Water came to mind. There is the same acceptance of the loved animal as ‘other’. Mii to Inaba is always a cat, not a human, but that does not in any way diminish the depth of Inaba’s feelings for her cat (or Maxwell’s for his otters).
I was also reminded of a Chinese novella, The Tabby-cat’s Tale by Han Dong, which I translated myself (Bridge21 Publications, 2025). In both stories, the cat is a sort of nexus in the narrator’s web of human relationships. The down-to-earth descriptions of appalling fleas, body processes and the infirmities of (feline) old age are also common to both authors. Are we in the west more squeamish? Perhaps. The difference between Mornings With My Cat Mii and The Tabby-cat’s Tale is in the raw emotions, or lack of them, of the author. Han Dong’s take on the tabby-cat in question is respectful but detached, while Inaba’s attachment, and her grief when Mii dies, are unmistakable.
Finally, I found Ginny Tapley Takemori’s translation pleasing and convincing. As a translator myself, I have a particular comment to make, on a point that interests me very much: the way Tapley Takemori keeps Japanese words in the text, without explanation or italics, and mostly without glosses. For instance, in one line, she describes a room as having tatami and a tokonoma. Most non-Japanese speakers would know that tatami is a kind of mat, but a tokonoma? There are two schools of thought about how to deal with words that are specific to the source language and culture: on the one hand, translators can explain or substitute a ‘domesticated’ version; on the other they can leave the words exactly as they are, in the hopes that the reader will do their own research. Tapley Takemori here has opted for the latter, the make-the-reader-work approach. I was intrigued because this is a decision I have to make, for or against, with almost everything I translate from Chinese. Furthermore, leaving foreign words in a translated text is a road less travelled by translators.
However, nowadays it is very easy to track down a word by searching online and so, in a matter of seconds, I found that a tokonoma is ‘a recessed space in a Japanese-style reception room, in which items for artistic appreciation are displayed. In English, a tokonoma could be called an alcove.’ (Thank you, Wikipedia). I am convinced! An alcove, alone, just doesn’t do it. A tokonoma does, and I’ve learnt a new word.
Mornings With My Cat Mii is beautiful (irrespective of one’s feelings towards cats) because Inaba is writing about love, the sort of love one could equally have for a human companion, about her pleasure in Mii’s company and ultimately, about grief. I read it in one sitting, and will likely go back and read it again. I thoroughly recommend it.
Amy Chavez talks with Robert Whiting about his recently released book Gangsters, Fraudsters, Dreamers & Spies: The Outsiders who Shaped Modern Japan (Tuttle, April, 2024).
In this episode of the Books on Asia podcast, host Amy Chavez talks to author John Stevens about his latest book The Lotus Moon: Art and Poetry of Buddhist Nun Otagaki Rengetsu (Floating World Editions, Aug. 2023).
Book’s Features:
The most comprehensive English-language presentation of the work of famed nun and artist Ōtagaki Rengetsu (1791-1875)
• Presents 90 of Rengetsu’s painting and pottery works in over 242 full-color photos
• Written by Professor John Stevens, the foremost Western authority on Rengetsu
• Includes Japanese kana, romanization, and English translations, with commentary for all entries
• Provides an intimate portrait of the life and work of one of the most remarkable women in Japanese culture
• Offers insights into significant thematic and cultural concerns of 19th-century Japanese art
Author and travel-writer Angus Waycott talks about his book Sado: Island of Exile based on his 8-day walk around the island off Niigata Prefecture in the Japan Sea. He gives us in-depth accounts of: a mujina (tanuki-worshipping) cult, funa-ema (literally “ship horse pictures”), exile (including those of Zeami and Buddhist priest Nichiren), and the controversy behind the Kinzan gold mine and its “slave labor,” all topics which he recorded in his book Sado: Japan’s Isand of Exile originally published by Stone Bridge Press in 1996, and re-issued as an e-book by the author 2012, and 2023.
Book Description: “Given the choice, no-one ever went to Sado. For more than a thousand years, this island in the Sea of Japan was a place of exile for the deposed, disgraced or just plain distrusted — ex-emperors, aristocrats, poets, priests and convicted criminals alike. This book rediscovers the exiles’ island, explores the truth about its notorious gold mine, tracks down a vanishing badger cult, and drops in on the home of super-drummer band Kodo. Along the way, it paints a vivid picture of one of Japan’s most intriguing backwaters, now emerging from a long exile of its own.”
Publisher Peter Goodman and author/translator Frederik Schodt talk about artificial intelligence as it relates to writing and publishing books.
Schodt’s book Astroboy Essays: Osamu Tezuka, Mighty Atom, and the Manga/Anime Revolution was recently listed as one of the books used to train generative AI. Peter Goodman is publisher of Stone Bridge Press (our podcast sponsor), and released Schodt’s Astroboy Essays in 2007. Both of these guests are going to give us their views on AI, the use of published books to train artificial intelligence, the issues of copyright, fair use and plagiarism, and what the AI industry should be doing to move forward and make the advancements beneficial for everyone involved.
If you’re an author and would like to find out if your book was one of 183,000 used to train AI, see this article in The Atlantic:
The search engine The Atlantic devised to use to see if particular titles were used to train generative AI.
